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MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
UNIVERSITY OF DANANG
The study has been completed at College of Foreign
NGUYỄN THỊ MINH HƯỜNG
Languages, University of Danang
Supervisor: NGUYỄN THỊ QUỲNH HOA, Ph.D
Examiner 1 : Assoc. Prof. Dr. Phan Văn Hòa
A DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF
ENGLISH OSCAR ACCEPTANCE SPEECHES
DELIVERED BY FILM AWARD WINNERS
IN THE USA
Examiner 2 : Assoc. Prof. Dr. Trương Viên
Field : The English Language
Code
:
60.22.15
The Origin of the thesis is accessible for the purpose of
MASTER THESIS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE
(A SUMMARY)
reference at:
- The College of Foreign Languages Library, University of
Danang
- Information Resourse Centre, University of Danang.
Danang, 2011
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Chapter 1
1.2.2. Objectives
- To examine the discourse features of Oscar acceptance
speeches in term of the layout, lexical choice, syntactic features,
cohesive and stylistic devices.
- To suggest some implications for teaching and learning
English
INTRODUCTION
1.1. RATIONALE
People cannot live without language, because language
is very important in communication. Communication is a process
of transferring message from a sender (the speaker) to a receiver
(the hearer).
In fact, language is the most effective and practical means of
communication. It is really a master key in all fields of society.
People use language to exchange information, express their thoughts,
their ideas or their opinions.
Nowadays, with the development of the society, speeches occur
in almost every field of our life. Speeches are dispensable for any
seminars, workshops or any other ceremonies. It is not easy to make a
good speech that is appropriate to various audiences. In order to deliver
an attractive and persuasive speech, one must master the speaking skill
as well as know how to organize and develop their writing.
There are so many interesting things that need to be studied in
Oscar Award Acceptance Speeches. Therefore, I have decided to
choose to do research on the topic “A Discourse Analysis of English
Oscar Acceptance Speeches Delivered by Film Award Winners in
the USA”. It is hoped that the findings of this study would provide
some useful information about the linguistic features of Award
Acceptance Speeches
1.2. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
1.2.1. Aims
- Raise the awareness of learners of English in effective
communication. In addition, based on the analysis, some suggestions
have been made.
1.3. RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1. What are the discourse features of English Oscar
Acceptance Speeches in terms of their layout features, lexical choice
and syntactic features of EOASs?
2. What are the discourse characteristics of EOASs in term of
cohesive devices and stylistic devices?
3. What are the implications drawn from the analysis of
EOASs for Vietnamese teachers and learners of English as well as
for those interested in the field of public speaking?
1.4. SCOPE OF THE STUDY
This thesis focuses on describing, analyzing, synthesizing
some discourse features namely the layout, syntactic features,
cohesive devices and stylistic devices
1.5. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
1.6. ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY
This study consists of five chapters.
Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter5,
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Chapter 2
USA” is conducted with the aim of contributing a minor part to fulfill
the overall picture of this field.
2.2. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
Discourse analysis is concerned with the study of the
relationship between language and the contexts in which it is used.
The following sections deal with the key concepts related to
discourse analysis.
2.2.1. Concepts of discourse
Halliday [21] defines “Discourse is a multidimensional process”.
According to Crystal [12] discourse is seen as “a continuous stretch of
language larger than a sentence, often constituting a coherent unit such
as a sermon, argument, joke, or narrative”.
Cook [9] has a similar perspective of discourse; he considers
discourse as “stretches of language perceived to be meaningful,
unified, and purposive”.
Widdowson [48,p.100] considers discourse as “a communicative
process by means of interaction.
From the above – mentioned concepts, discourse is employed
in this research as follows:
- Discourse is language in use, for communication.
- Discourse is a language unit which has meaning, unity and
purpose.
- Discourse is a process and its linguistic product is text.
2.2.2. Discourse and Text
Actually, it is not easy to make a clear-cut distinction between
“text” and “discourse”. The concepts of discourse and text defined by
Halliday [21,p.290] maybe the most comprehensive. He states that
“discourse” itself is a process and the term “text” is usually taken as
referring to the product. Obviously, cohesion and coherence are
typical of text as a language unit.
LITERATURE REVIEW
AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
2.1. LITERATURE REVIEW
Discourse analysis is concerned with the study of the
relationship between language and the context in which it is
used.Brown and Yule [5] suggested discourse theory of cohesion,
coherence, theme –rheme structure, information structure, frame,
schemata, role of context, genre, register, and so on .
Cook [9] explained the theory of discourse analysis aand Mc
Carthy [28] gave an insight into how texts are structured beyond the
sentence –level;
As for cohesion, Haliday and Hasan [20] regarded a coherent
text as having two characteristics somewhat different from those in
the traditional definition : cohesion (i.e. ties between sentences) and
register (i.e coherence with a context).
Discourse analysis is an important and discipline which has
attracted the interest and concern of many linguists and researchers.
context, topics, information structure and coherence by Brown and
Yule [5], cohesion, speech acts and discourse processing by Nunan
[36], formal links and conversation analysis by Cook[9], speech
events and contextual analysis by Hatch [23] cohesion by Halliday
and Hassan [20], etc.
To the best of my knowledge, although there have been many
researches into speeches, up to now, there is no evidence that any
research on discourse analysis of Oscar Acceptance Speeches has
been done. Thus in this thesis “A Discourse Analysis of Oscar
Acceptance Speeches Delivered by Film Award Winners in the
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2.2.3. Spoken and Written Discourse
Spoken discourse is often less planned and orderly, more open
to intervention by the receiver while the written one is well structured
and the possibilities for subordinate participants are very limited.
Brown and Yule [5] suggest that spoken and written discourse serve
various functions:
- The first is used for the establishment and maintenance of
human relationship (interactional use);
- The second for the working out of and transference of
information (transactional use)
2.2.5.1. Cohesion
Halliday and Hasan [20] give the most comprehensive
description analysis of cohesive devices five major types of cohesive
ties: reference, substitution, ellipsis and conjunction and lexical ties.
The first four types are grouped as grammatical cohesion and the
later is lexical cohesion.
Grammatical cohesion
a) Reference
Halliday and Hasan [20] categorize reference as three groups:
Personal reference, Demonstrative reference and Comparative reference
b) Substitution
Haliday and Hasan give out the following list of the items that
occur as substitutes:
Nominal substitution
:
one, ones; same
Verbal substitution
:
do
Clausal substitution
:
so, not
c) Ellipsis
As with substitution, there are three types of ellipsis:
nominal, verbal and clausal ellipsis.
d) Conjunction
Conjunction refers to specific devices (conjunctions) for
linking one sentence to another. There are a number of words conjunctions and adverbs - which fulfill this function. Basically, they
may be divided into four groups: additive, adversative, causal and
temporal conjunctions
Lexical cohesion
There are two major categories of lexical cohesion: reiteration
and collocation.
Reiteration includes repetition, synonym, antonym, superordinate, and general words..
2.2.4. Register of Discourse
Inevitably, there is a close relationship between language and
context. Language is produced in a certain context and that context
becomes understandable because of the apparent purpose expressed
through language.
Halliday [21] further defines register as “the variety of
language used in a particular situational context”.
Galperin [15] considers registers “the functional styles” and
Galperin also divides registers into five categories:
•The language of belle-letters
•The language of official documents
•The language of scientific prose
•The language of publicistic literature
•The language of newspaper
2.2.5. Cohesion and Coherence .
Cohesion and coherence are two terms which become very
popular in discourse analysis. They are closely interrelated in the way
that cohesion is regarded as one of the ways of making a text
coherent.
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2.2.5.2. Coherence
Coherence is embodied by a system of cohesive devices and
cohesion is mainly used to ensure coherence.
2.2.6. Some features on Styles and Stylistics
2.2.7. Classification of Stylistic Devices
In the scope of this study, some features of stylistic devices
are found and discussed as follows.
2.2.7.1. Alliteration
2.2.7.2. Interjections
2.2.7.3. Parallel Construction
2.2.7.4. Climax
2.2.7.5. Hyperbole
2.2.7.6. Epithet
2.2.8. Some General Features of Oscar Acceptance Speeches
2.2.8.1. Acceptance Speech as a Type of Discourse
2.2.8.2. Notions of Acceptance Speech
An acceptance speech is a speech delivered on accepting some
award or a high rank (e.g. presidency). Structurally, the acceptance
speech can be considered a variant of a thank you speech but the
expression of gratitude it contains is rather symbolic because the
nominee him/herself has made a great contribution to art
/science/politics/etc.[62]
2.2.8.3.Some Notes on the Oscar
Wikipedia cites “An Academy Award, also known as the
Oscar, is granted by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts
and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film
industry, including directors, actors, and writers.
2.2.8.4. Origin of the Oscar’s Name
2.3. SUMMARY
Chapter 3
METHODS AND PROCEDURES
3.1. RESEARCH METHODS
In order to achieve this aim, I carry out my investigation based
on the combination of several methods as follows :
- Quantitive and Qualitative methods
- Descriptive methods
- Analytic and Synthetic methods
- Inductive methods
3.2. SAMPLING
3.3. DATA COLLECTION
In this study, 100 samples of EOASs selected for the analysis are
in the form of written texts on the Internet. All EOASs are downloaded
from the famous website: http://aaspeechesdb.oscars.org/.
3.4. RESEARCH PROCEDURE
In order to prepare the base for the research, I proceeded to
carry out the tasks as follows.
- Collecting data
- Analyzing data
- Discussing the findings: synthesize the findings and draw
conclusion.
- Putting forwards some implications.
3.5. DATA ANALYSIS
On the basis of 100 EOASs, the data will be investigated into
some discourse features as: the layout, the lexical choice, the
syntactic features, cohesive devices, and stylistic devices.
Finally, conclusion is drawn from the above analysis results.
3.6. VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY
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Chapter 4
Here is an example of a speech by Graham King in 2006.[95]
While the first two models of EOASs represent in concrete
structures. Particularly, these speeches are mentioned to the
speaker’s personal story, social matters, gratitude to his family etc..
However, the order of these elements presented may be
interchangeable.
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
4.1. THE LAYOUT OF EOASs
4.1.1. General Layout of EOASs
In this study, I have surveyed 100 EOASs with various
elements forming their layouts. As a result, EOASs generally
contains several logically bound sections as follows.
Introduction
Attention Catching
Body
- Transition
Gratitude Expression
Conclusion
Closing
4.1.2. Specific contents
Through examining and classifying 100 of samples of EOASs,
I withdraw some results in Table 4.1 as follows.
Table 4.1 Frequently Used Contents in EOASs
Figure 4.1: The Layout of EOASs - Model 1
Below is an example speech of by Nicolas Cage in 1995 to
represent the above – mentioned matter.[137]
Another popular model of layout also appears in this corpus.
Here is the second model of EOASs.
Attention
Introduction
Catching
Emotion Expression
Body
- Transition
Conclusion
Gratitude Expression
Closing
Figure 4.2 The Layout of EOASs - Model 2
Order
Frequently used contents
Occurrence
1
Model 1
35 instances
2
Model 2
55 instances
3
Multiforms
15 instances
The elements emotion and gratitude expressions in Model 2
are mainly presented in EOASs. In addition, closing contributes a
minor part in finishing the speech. This is also a important element to
make a good impression on the audience. The indispensable part in
the speech to get the audience's attention, capture their hearts and
minds and convince them to listen to the speech is attention
catching.
4.1.2.1. Attention Catching
Here are some among the various examples.
(5) Oh my heavens, I can't believe it. [Clutching the Oscar]
A man at last! [Laughs.]
[121]
4.1.2.2. Emotion Expression
Here are some illustrations:
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(7)
Oh my God. I have to just take this moment in. I
cannot believe this. Look what God can do. If my
grandmother--I didn't think I was going to win but,
wow, if my grandmother was here to see me now
[111]
4.1.2.3. Gratitude Expression
Let us take a look at the following examples.
Thanking the Academy
(10)
I would like to thank the Academy for inviting me
here tonight alongside so many talented people:
Holly, Patricia, Marcia and Shohreh. I am honored,
honored to be here with you.
[145]
Thanking the cast and crew or co-worker
Thanking the family
(13) And on a personal note, I'd like to thank my mother and
my sister for holding me together and just plain old
holding me. And my kids, Peter and Eli, for being
my constant inspiration, and no matter how many
awards I win, if it weren't them I wouldn't be worth a
damn.
[151]
4.1.2.4. Closing
People usually remember two things about a speech, the
beginning and the end. Closing a speech in a powerful way will have
the audience thinking about your speech for a long time. This is
emphasized to the audience key statements.[61]
(15)
And as for you [looking at Oscar], at long last! Good
night and God bless you.
[123]
4.2. LEXICAL CHOICE
4.2.1. Personal Pronouns
Table 4.2 Frequently used Personal Pronouns in EOASs
Order
Frequently used
Personal Pronouns
Occurrence
Rate
1
I
975
76.4%
2
You
200
15.7%
3
We
101
7.9%
Total
1.276
100%
As for the personal pronoun I with 975 instances accounting
for 76.4% is found in this study. In these cases, the speaker sets a
subject position for himself as an individual –the award winner. One
interesting thing is that the speaker used the great majority of
Personal Pronoun I in EOASs to show his /her emotional
expressions, his thoughts about Oscar award and his gratitude to
everyone.
Here are some examples.
(17)
I would like to thank The Academy from the bottom
of my heart.
[97]
(21)
This moviemaking experience was magical for me
because of you. You believed in me, you trusted me
and you gently guided me to very scary places. [98]
(22)
We found real beauty in this extraordinary script by
Sam Mendes – by Alan Ball.
[119]
4.2.2. Commonly Used Terms in EOASs
These words are frequently found in various parts of speech:
nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, participles, etc. The list is as
below.
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Table 4.3 Frequently Used Words in EOASs
No.
1
Term
Academy
Part of
speech
Noun
Meaning
an institution for the
advancement of art or
Frequency
(times)
78
science or literature
something
2
Award
Noun
awarded,
66
such as a prize or
medal
a form of entertainment
47
that enacts a story by
sound and a sequence
3
Movie
Noun
of images giving the
illusion of continuous
movement
The actors in a play,
4
Cast
Noun
5
Crew
Noun
an organized group of
Honor
Noun
33
workmen
High respect, as that
6
37
movie,
or
other
theatrical presentation
shown
for
30
special
merit; esteem
7
8
Chance
/Opportunity
Thank
Noun
Verb
A favorable set of
27
circumstances
To express appreciation
or gratitude to (someone)
for a favour, service, gift
552
Briefly, among the common terms tabulated above, the verb
thank is used with the highest frequency (552 times). It appears in
most of EOASs.
4.3. SYNTACTIC FEATURES OF EOASs
4.3.1. Voice
In term of voice, there are two types of voice occurring in
English grammar: active voice and passive voice.
The following are some illustrations of passive voice.
(29)
Let me say before continuing any further that I was
overwhelmed to be mentioned in the same breath as
theother four gentlemen who were nominated with
me.
[76]
In a nutshell, the active voice is favourable in EOASs in order
to highlight the active role in the acceptance speech.
4.3.2. Sentence Types
Among 1.720 sentences, 1.641 sentences belong to the
declarative type, 39 sentences are questions, 25 sentences are
exclamatory and 15 sentences are imperative. The following table
will show this.
Table 4.4 Summary of Types of Sentences
Types
Occurrence
Rate
Declarative sentence
1.641
95.4%
Interrogative sentence
39
2.3%
Exclamatory sentence
25
1.4%
Imperative sentence
15
0.9%
1.720
100%
Total
We often see such sentences as follows.
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Stephen Daldry, you took a huge chance on me. I am
so grateful. David Hare, you gave me magnificent
words to say.
[138]
Most of the questions here are rhetorical ones, that is to say the
way the speakers poses the questions is just an art in guiding the
listeners to the matter and the speaker himself/herself has to find out
the answer. Here are some examples.
(35)
Why do you come to the Academy Awards when the
world is in such turmoil? Because art is important.
And because you believe in what you do and you
want to honor that.
[138]
The noticeable thing to emerge in EOASs is exclamation. It
takes up about 1.4% of all types of sentences.
(37) Regina King, I love you! You did a great job when we
made the movie!
[84]
In terms of the imperative mode, it rarely occurs in EOASs
with the modest rate 0.9%. Most of imperative sentences in EOASs
starts with “let me”.
(39)
Let me share this award with all people, talented
people, all the young working on my films behind
the camera.
[85]
4.4. COHESIVE DEVICES
Following Halliday’s point of view, I embark on analyzing
cohesive devices in EOASs and achieve the result as shown in Table 4.5.
Table 4.5 Cohesive Devices in EOASs
As can be seen in Table 4.5, the number of lexical devices
(1008 instances) was a bit more than the number of grammatical ones
(626 instances.). The use of each type will be analyzed in details as
follows.
(33)
Device
Ref.
Sub.
Occurrence
401
Percentage
25.2
Gra.devices
DEEDDEdevi
ces devices
Lex.
4.4.1. Grammatical Cohesive Devices in EOASs
With regard to grammatical cohesion, the grammatical devices
most used were reference (68.5%), followed by conjunction (28.9%)
and ellipsis (1.7%). Substitution accounts for a relatively small
percentage (0.9%).
Conj
..
169
Rep.
Syn.
Ant.
Hyp.
5
Ellip
.
10
962
29
11
6
0.3
0.6
10.6
60.4
1.8
0.7
0.4
36.7 %
63.3 %
4.4.1.1. Reference
In English, items which have the property of reference are
personal, demonstrative, and comparative reference.
Below are some illustrations.
(41)
But my gratitude goes to six beautiful women. They
love me, they keep me young: my wife Martha, my
daughters Veronica, Raffaella, Francesca, Carolyna,
little Dina -- for the moment.
[85]
In the first instance, the italic word is an example of personal
reference. The item They in the second sentence is interpretable only
by reference to six beautiful women. By using such pronoun, the
speaker maintained the relationship between two sentences without
having to repeat the phrase.
(43)
I found desire for what I do early in my life and I'm
lucky because I had people who encouraged that
desire.
[66]
In the above extract, Demonstrative reference that followed by
a noun desire is a selective nominal demonstrative with anaphoric
function.
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Rarely do we find the comparative reference in EOASs and the
preferable choice of such kind of reference is often such and same.
Here is an illustration.
(45)
I mention their names because they are two of the
finest gay Americans, two wonderful men that I had
the good fortune to be associated with, to fall under
their inspiration at such a young age. I wish my
babies could have the same sort of teacher, the same
sort of friends.
[159]
also, madmiration (Ø goes to all the other four who
didn’t )
[117]
The majority ellipsis in EOASs is verbal and nominal ellipsis.
Clausal ellipsis which is common in conversation discourse is not
found in the English corpus.
4.4.1.2. Conjunction
Here are some among various examples.
(46)
I'd like to thank the Academy, Fox Searchlight, my
wife Suzanne, my sons Adam, Matthew and Tony
for their endless support. My representation: Estelle,
Lee, Frank and Melody. And for the great teachers
I've had throughout my life, both in and out of the
profession
[67]
In other words, conjunctive elements show whether the
relationship between the following sentence and the preceding one is
additive, adversative, causal or temporal.
The following are some nice illustrations.
(48)
So many movies are just brilliant but nobody ever
knows about them, you know? So we're so lucky to
be here tonight and have people recognize that. [78]
4.4.1.3. Ellipsis
Let us have a look at this illustration.
(50)
You live in a kind of haze for several weeks, and the
terrible thing is that somebody's got to win. My heart
goes out to all the other four who didn't (Ø win). And
4.4.1.4. Substitution
We sometimes see nominal substitution realized by items such
as one, ones. But so is rarely used for clausal substitution in award
acceptance speeches. Below are some examples.
(52)
And all the people who have been rooting for me
back home. Also Jessica Kolstad, my friend, Paul
Lyon-Maris and Chris Andrews, for bearing with me
through some of the less fortunate moments as well
as the good ones
[83]
4.4.2. Lexical Cohesive Devices in EOASS
4.4.2.1. Repetition
From the data analysis results, it is found out that there are four
sub-types of repetition; namely repetition of the pronouns “I”, “you”
and the possessive adjective “your”, repetition of nouns, repetition of
adjectives, repetitions of verbs and repetition of adverbs.
The following are illustrations of repetition of the above
circumstances.
(54)
I, and I want it to be very clear that I do know how
hard I make it to appreciate me, often. But I am
touched by the appreciation and I hoped for it. [153]
Following is another instance as the repetition of verbs,
adjectives and adverbs accounts for a rather moderate portion. Here
are some examples .
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(56)
To be standing here where the Queen of England
just stood, Idi Amin, is pretty incredible. To be
standing here where Martin Scorsese won his Oscar
is such a joy, such a joy.
[95]
4.4.2.2. Synonymy
As stated before, synonyms are the type of repetition which
ranks the second with the low percentage of 2.9%.
Following are some frequently occurred synonyms in EOASs.
(60)
I want to thank Orion Films, past and present,
especially Marc Platt for letting us do this very
peculiar little film in the first place….To the writers
of course, who created a marvelous character. To the
players, a wonderful group of actors that I was
fortunate to work with, especially Mr.Tommy Lee
Jones who really made the performance that I gave
possible.
[113]
The pair of synonymy here is “marvelous” and “wonderful”
4.4.2.3.Antonymy
Antonym receives less attention than synonymy (1.1%)in
EOASs. Let us consider the following examples.
(63) This is, you know, it fills me with great joy, but I am also
filled with a lot of sadness tonight because I am accepting an award
at such a strange time.[65]
The antonym is taken advantage of as a way to express the
speaker’s thoughts and show emotions to the audience.
4.4.2.4. Hyponymy
Let us take the following nice illustration
[64]
I would not have been able to play this role had I not
understood love of a tremendous magnitude, and for
that I thank my family. My mother Blythe Danner,
who I love more than anything, and my brother Jake
Paltrow, who is just the dearest person in the whole
world. My earthly guardian angel, Mary Wigmore*.
And especially to my father Bruce Paltrow, who has
surmounted insurmountable obstacles this year. I
love you more than anything in the world. And (1)to
my grandpa Buster, who almost made it here
tonight, but couldn't quite get here. Grandpa, I want
you to know that you have created a beautiful family
who loves you and loves each other more than
anything.
[97]
In conclusion, repetition overwhelms other cohesive devices in
terms of quantity.
4.5. STYLISTIC DEVICES
Based on Galperin’s views [15], I examime EOASs and find
six stylistic devices frequently appear in the corpus. After analyzing
100 EOASs, we get the results the distributions of stylistic devices in
the EOASs in the following table.
Table 4.7 Stylistics Devices in EOASs
Devices
Interjec.
Epit.
Para.
Hyper.
Clim.
Alliter.
No of
occurrence
103
72
45
20
15
6
%
39.5
27.6
17.4
7.6
5.7
2.2
4.5.1. Interjections
Among stylistics devices in EOASs, interjections occupy a
rather high position with 39.5% of the whole corpus.
Let us take some examples of the use of interjections.
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(66) Oh boy! Wow. Thank you so much, members of the
Academy.
[158]
4.5.2. Epithets
Epithet is another stylistic device used by the Oscar winners. It
accounts for 17.4 % of the whole corpus.
Here is one illustration for this :
(69)
So this is really a proud and hopeful moment for
me, because I want to thank the Academy for giving
us a gift of encouragement.
[66]
Most of speakers used a lot of epithets in his speech. In fact,
without them their speech is dry, awfully plain and not interesting.
(70)
It was a wonderful adventure. To make a picture in
thirty-seven days it takes a well-oiled machine. And
that well-oiled machine is a crew--the cast.
[82]
4.5.3. Parallelism
There are many successful paralleled sentences in Oscar Award
Acceptance Speeches, which can be divided into sentence
parallelism, word parallelism, word phrase parallelism. Following are
some examples.
(72)
Stephen Daldry, you took a huge chance on me. I
am so grateful. David Hare, you gave me
magnificent words to say. Scott Rudin, you fought
so hard for this film, to get it made. Paramount and
Miramax, you made it.
[138]
The above two are the parallelism of clauses.
4.5.4. Hyperbole.
Hyperbole also appears in OASS with 5.7%. Here are some
examples.
(75)
And Jamie, this is, you're just, I have nothing
without you. You are the strongest, most amazing
man I've ever known and I love you. And thank you
so much.
[71]
4.5.5.Climax
It can be seen in Table 4.8, 10 instances of climax, accounting
for a rather moderate rate of 0.8%
Emotional climax is mainly found in sentences. Below are
some examples.
(77)
Carey, your grace and your elegance and your
beauty and your talent makes me sick
[152]
(78)
Thank God we live together. May all of us find in
our hearts and in our homes and in our world a way
to nonviolently end violence and heal
[157]
4.5.6.Alliteration
Ranking right after climax in the list of stylistic devices is
alliteration. It is the last one in order of Table 4.7. This shows that the
phonetic stylistic feature is also used but rarely occurred in EOASs
(80)
And for reminding her daughters that there's no race,
no religion, no class system, no color, nothing, no
sexual orientation, that makes us better than anyone
else. We are all deserving of love
[152]
4.6. SUMMARY
25
26
Chapter 5
5.2.IMPLICATIONS FOR LANGUAGE TEACHING AND LEARNING
- For teachers: Our findings provide general features of
acceptance speech and hence help the teachers a lot in giving some
tips in writing and making a presentation persuasively and
impressively.
- For students: Mastering some discourse features in OASS
such as the layout, lexical and syntactic features, cohesive devices
and stylistic devices, students will have a better insight into making a
unified and logical speech.
- For those who are interested in the field of public speaking as
an acceptance speech: Nowadays, with the integration into the trend
of world, award acceptance speeches are not delivered related to film
industry, but also in the other fields. In this sense, fully mastering of
some discourse features as well as having the knowledge of culture,
art, life help to make a coherent, successful speech.
CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS
5.1. CONCLUSION
- In terms of the layout, EOASs contain 3 parts : Introduction
section – Body Section – Conclusion Section with different contents.
Noticeably, the speakers uses the model 1 with the highest frequency.
It is to show that emotion expression is favourably expressed in most
of EOASs.
- As regards the lexical and syntactic features in EOASs, the
structures and the words are used to express the speaker’s emotion
and thanks to the related people. Especially, the prominent personal
pronoun I is used through all speeches. Furthermore, the speaker
applies the type of declarative sentence most of all to give
information, express thoughts and create clear messages. Passive
voice is rarely used in EOASs to avoid unclearness, ambiguity and
misunderstanding.
- Referring to cohesive devices, we see a large amount of
repetition to underscore the speaker’s main themes and make the
audience bear in mind longer. The synonymy, antonym with diverse
forms also appears with a low rate in EOASs make the speaker’s
words more flexible and easy to understand. Besides, hyponymy
sometimes occurs in EOASs providing the audience with background
knowledge and enriching words in the speech. Additionally,
reference and conjunction also contribute a large part to link the ideas
logically and create the effective use of language.
- As for stylistic devices, the speaker employed a number of
devices as interjections, epithet, parallel, hyperbole, climax and
alliteration to create attention to the audience.
5.3. LIMITATIONS
5.4. SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH
Discourse analysis covers a broad domain. Thus, there are
some interesting points that need deeper research :
1. An investigation into speech acts in EOASs.
2. An investigation into thematisation in EOASs
3. More study on word order in EOASs.
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